kinase

Apicomplexan parasites are obligate intracellular parasites that infect a variety of hosts, causing significant diseases in livestock and humans. The invasive forms of the parasites invade their host cells by gliding motility, an active process driven by parasite adhesion proteins and molecular motors.

We show that recombinant Pfcrk-3 associates with histone H1 kinase activity in parasite extracts and that this association is detectable even if the catalytic domain of Pfcrk-3 is rendered inactive by site-directed mutagenesis, indicating that Pfcrk-3 is part of a complex that includes other protein kinases.

Our data show that the corresponding P. falciparum gene, termed PFE0485w, can functionally complement a yeast temperature-sensitive pik1 mutation.